Should schools reopen next week

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There's many threads on the coronavirus board discussing schools reopening next week but I've not seen one here where the voting system could give an 'at a glance' indication of public opinion.

It would be interesting to see the figures as it seems at the moment the vast majority feel that it's not safe for children, staff and the wider community to reopen as planned next week.

YABU - schools should open next week as planned, with the staggered return of secondary.

YANBU - keep them closed to most with a similar setup to March until the figures fall and / or we fully know the affect of the new strains on transmission between children.

I thought the Government said that whilst the new strain is more infectious, it is not more harmful.
It’s a disgrace that school’s stayed closed for so long during the last lockdown. We are destroying a generation.
Primaries should go back full time and secondaries blended learning for January.
If schools close then garden centres and non essential shops should close too.

I’ve been pondering this today. I don’t want them to close- DS will be devastated, and it will break me. On balance I think it is needed though. However, a couple of things to consider:

• If they shut early years care and primary schools, a lot of parents will understandably rely even more heavily on grandparents for childcare bubbles. Would the closures just put vulnerable people at more risk?
• On a walk today with a friend (who incidentally is a teacher), we saw 2 very large groups of teens/ tweens mingling around the village. We’re in a tier 4 area! Friend muttered that this is why closing the schools wouldn’t work. It’d need a high level on compliance to make sure that kids didn’t mix when schools were off, and I feel like the appetite for compliance is dropping by the day around here.

Yes of course they should. They shouldn't have shut early in Wales. ieureka.blogs.bristol.ac.uk

@formerbabe

They need to be open imo. This is beyond ridiculous.

Literally everything is shut - shops, gatherings, bars, restaurants, gyms, etc etc etc

YET schools - where hundreds and thousands of people gather five days a week NEED to be open????

Closed.

Education trumps much but the is not an impossible nut to crack. I don't know why our country makes it so hard.

It's only a few weeks, education should not stop, key workers should go in and those who need too.
Everyone taught on line as per normal curriculum.

I’d do this on a board where people can vote.

I don’t want them open next week but I don’t think they should necessarily stay closed until March either-if you did a poll for those two options only, you would get very different answers to if you asked if they should all be closed until eg the 18th January, like Scotland, and then reevaluate.

I would prefer them to open. Single parent here, with kids who have very limited contact with their dad.
One of my dc can go in regardless but doesnt want to as feels it is not fair if others do not. Currently refusing to go in Jan. i have said it is not an option.

However if said dc does not go in I dont know how it will work.
We will all need to use the same pc at the same time. School might be able to lend us one.

My Sn dc who is at secondary will need 1:1 while on the pc which will be all day. And needs close supervision the rest of the time. Evenings i need to be silent otherwise sn dc has constant screaming fits. Making it impossible for me to wfh.

Nightmare all over again.

I understand why people want them to close but for some of us it puts us in impossible situation. And i am sure most people who want them to close do not have verbally and physically aggressive children with them all day.

I dont know how I will cope if it happens.

@Letseatgrandma it was done on a board where people can vote. It has been moved here.

I think part of the problem is that children aren’t being taught online. Many schools simply aren’t offering that. Ours uses Microsoft teams but 40% of the pupils aren’t doing the work. Fine for my DS as he’s moved up a set recently due to the poor test results of other children but it is a sad scenario and it won’t change.

What’s your logic here?

It’s going to kill me but closing them for 2/3 weeks would surely be beneficial for the country. These numbers are escalating like crazy.

Closed. There is a finite number of teachers, that fact seems impossible for many people to grasp. Just like there is a finite number of medics.

If my sons college is safe to open FT.

Then I think he should be allowed to return to swim training too.

Swimming pools are far safer and SD actually happens!

It doesn't affect his MH learning via teams.

It does not swimming 5 days a week.

I'm fed up of them deciding Willy Nilly what's safe without any real science to back it up.

Currently we have no mixing indoors anywhere in UK. New variant highly contagious. No more than 6 people can meet outdoors and mostly just 2.

But mixing in family groups of 30-150 a day with no mitigation's is perfectly safe and beneficial even.

YANBU keep them shut. Save lives.

@supportneeded1

Closed I’ve kept mine off for 3 weeks prior to Xmas and will keep them off till I feel it’s safe for them to return

You’re obviously in a position to do that, schools need to be open for parents who can’t.

@GawdrestyeJerryMentlemen

YANBU keep them shut. Save lives.

Yep bugger the generation of kids who’s lives will be completely fucked, but hey, 85 year olds got to have a 90th birthday party!!

Closed for January, potentially to Feb half term.

Give time for vaccine to be rolled out to more people and a plan for rotas/smaller classes to be set up.

Also time for more to be learnt about the South Africa strain and the effects on young children

That this is more infectious, particularly compared to previous infection rates in children, is a clear concern.

So many workplaces have to operate under reduced capacity and with mitigating circumstances due to the possibility of passing on the virus, yet schools initially were told to crack on with a bit of hand washing and trying to keep bubbles separate because it was decided that the children wouldn't be as ill or as likely to catch or then spread covid themselves. This fact is still being trotted out on school threads by people who have missed the fact that it is being reported that the new variant is a much more level playing field in terms of who gets and passes on the virus.

Asking people to wfh and closing hospitality and shops etc is more to do with capping the rate of infection and preventing the infection reaching those who are more at risk of that rather than the individual risk of the shopper or diner. You don't see people crying loudly on threads that noone should be wfh and everyone should be back in the office because most of them are healthy people.

If the virus itself is more communicable and pupils can catch and spread the virus much more (100% more likely that pupils under the age of 20 if one graph is correct) then it is vital that we stop treating children as different and immune and start demanding that schools operated safely in line with workplace measures.

It's practically impossible to ask primary pupils to distance, so a rota or using additional spaces and adults to make smaller groups would be a start to reduce bubble sizes and allow them to spread out. At the minimum it would allow me to be 2m from my pupils as my room is not big enough otherwise.

Some people who believe their schools to be covid-secure (as if anywhere is!) would have a different opinion if they were in the school actually seeing how the nitty gritty of it actually worked and how you cannot actually follow the guidelines 100% safely and still have all the kids in. Just 120 children in our Uks2 sharing 6 toilets, 3 in a room designated for boys and 3 in a room designated for girls, but not being allowed to let the year 5 and the year 6 mix is a nightmare in itself.

@pollylocketpickedapocket it’s not just about the 85 year that you think is not worthy of saving.
It’s not just about saving the elderly.
In simple English, Anyone of any age with any medical needs will NOT get treated if there are no beds at hospital or oxygen— as we have seen today on the news. Simple as.

I vote for schools to close.
—-Because “A healthy nation is a wealthy nation”.

I don't think a one size fits all approach is appropriate. I think possibly tier 4 schools closed, and in other tiers more power given to headteachers to decide whether to move to online learning depending on how their school is coping. Parents who want to keep their children off no matter what tier should not be penalised either.

Whilst I want them to be open I think we will pay for it.

On balance I think we should delay for a couple of weeks.

Interesting that this got moved out of AIBU to the covid section presumably reported by someone who hasn’t bothered to report all the other covid aibu threads.

Was the poll not going their way? I’m suspicious.

I have no experience of secondary but primary schools should open. The impact on vulnerable children and the mental health of all children of that age will be significant with further closures. I also think the balanced impact on the economy is too much. If primaries close my children will be going to their grandparents who cannot facilitate any home schooling because I can't work and home school 2 children without completely losing my sh*t it turns out.

I think an extra 2 weeks off will really help keep the numbers down